Karen Idel

Name: Karen Idel

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Grade: 12

School: Aurora High School

Hobbies and Interests: MMORPGS, Video Games, RTS Games, Chess, Risk, War Games

Appearance: Karen is the pale child of two pale parents, and since she avoids going outside whenever possible her skin is paler still and looks somewhat unhealthy. Though she rarely exercises, she has an unusually high metabolism and weighs in at a skeletal 92 pounds. She has a severe case of acne which mars her features, and her greasy brown hair hangs like a curtain over her face. Her eyebrows are unusually thin. She is relatively short at 5 feet, 2 inches and has a fairly flat chest. Her features are angular, emphasizing the contours of her skull. Her dark brown eyes are very large and the glasses she wears tend to make them seem larger still. Her lips are pale and thin. Her nose is thin and sharp, protruding far out in front of her face. Her large ears are usually hidden by her hair. She favors internet-themed T-shirts and jeans. On the day of her disappearance she was wearing an oversized grey T-shirt with a picture of the Ski Free monster on it and an F Key next to it, with the words "There's always a way" beneath the images, as well as baggy blue jeans and white sneakers.

Biography: Karen Idel is the only child of Ralph and Elena Idel, and has lived in Seattle all her life. Elena did work at various internet start-ups around Seattle and eventually became involved in Amazon, and Ralph is a vice president at Nordstrom's.

Karen was diagnosed with severe asthma from an early age, which prevented her from being as physically active as her peers but did not prevent her from wanting to join them. Her parents repeatedly cautioned her to be careful, as they did not want to put her on steroids yet out of a suspicion that it might have negative consequences for her development. During recess, she was usually supervised by a teacher, but when Karen was 7 years old said teacher had to have an emergency appendectomy and so was not able to alert her substitute to Karen's conditon. Karen thus managed to join in a kickball game happening on the playground. She managed to deliver a fantastic kick and took off running, but by the time she was headed to second base she'd triggered a powerful asthma attack, which left her collapsed, gasping, unable to see but quite conscious. She was rushed to the hospital and saved, but the event had long-term consequences.

After her near-death experience. She also became extremely paranoid about future dangers, to the extent that she developed fairly severe hypochondria. This was partially a result of her parents trusting her with a computer from an early age, since they wanted to find ways to keep her entertained since she couldn't play outside (though obviously with a number of parental controls in place). Using her computer, Karen was able to look up potential diseases and potential dangers. She washed her hands frequently. The problem reached its peak at age nine, when she could barely bring herself to leave the house. Her parents scheduled regular counseling sessions with her school's counselor, who helped her to reduce her paranoia and hypochondria.

Her counselor was unable to fight off her increasing introversion, however, which began to increase as she became more wrapped up in the digital and virtual world. Karen played both chess and risk with her parents, and was able to convince her parents to let her join websites where such games could be played with people from across the globe. This launched her interest in similar games, and she began to play a wide variety of RTS games, largely online. She withdrew from the world, no longer talking to what few real-world friends she'd had.

This sudden introversion would likely have earned her parent's attention and worry, as her hypochondria had, but they were distracted by their mounting marital problems. When Karen was 10 years old, the strains lying beneath her parents' relationship began to edge towards divorce. As their marriage fell apart, Elena and Ralph could spare less and less attention for their daughter, even as they fought for custody rights. Karen's introversion became more solidified as her parents screamed at one another, and she withdrew still farther into herself to avoid the kind of emotional tangles that led to such pain as her parents experienced. The battle was fierce, and ended in them agreeing to share joint custody of her at the age of 13. Both parents blamed themselves for their daughter's introversion, never challenging her or forcing her to leave her comfort zone for fear of hurting her more, as well as spoiling her with gifts in an attempt to salve their own guilt.

This reluctance has prevented them from addressing Karen's tendency to eat too little for her high metabolism, but they remain reluctant to force the issue. Though overly skinny, Karen's remnant hypochondria compels her to try to stay nutritionally balanced, and she tries to stick closely to the food pyramid, snacking on fruits and vegetables and occasionally forcing herself to eat fast food just to get the raw calories. One Health teacher in the eighth grade became overly concerned with her weight and attempted to force her to see a doctor. Though Karen was able to avoid this, she has since told every new teacher she's had about her high metabolism and assured them that she is nutritionally balanced and they need not be concerned.

Karen continued to play strategy games, becoming increasingly good at them as time went on. She is one of the top-ranked Starcraft II players in America and a consistent tournament winner on chess.com. Her online interests have led her to other games, including various MMORPGs; she has multiple high-level accounts in Guild Wars, TERA, and WoW. Her introversion has decreased somewhat as she has joined various clubs around Seattle and at school which cater to her strategic interests, but she is only there to play and she does not attempt to befriend anyone in these clubs or spend time with them outside of club activities. Her intelligence is not limited to strategy. She tends to average out to Bs in class, since she rarely puts much effort into homework that requires a significant investment of her time but is usually able to achieve decent grades on homework and high marks on her tests.

At the age of 15, Karen was able to convince her parents that steroid treatments would likely have no more long term effects on her physical development, and has largely managed to suppress her asthma as a result. She still requires an inhaler in case of breathing troubles, but is in little danger of an attack as serious as that which nearly killed her at age 7.

Karen prefers to be solitary in all endeavors as a result of the emotional damage her parents inflicted on each other in the course of their divorce. In online games she works with others only when she absolutely must. In MMORPGs, she assumes attempts by others to befriend her are attempts to steal her resources. Although her hypochondria has been much diminished as a result of her counseling, it still underlies some of her actions--she washes her hands if she senses some exposure to possible danger, and generally showers twice a day. She is antisocial, highly intelligent, and fairly paranoid.

Advantages: Karen is very intelligent and has a very strategic mind. She is overly cautious and does not need other people, so is likely to stay isolated and avoid betrayal. Assuming she stays under control, she will be able to manage her limited resources effectively.

Disadvantages: Karen lacks any real muscle development. She has no stamina, no upper body strength, and no agility. She has not developed many friendships. And because she is so sheltered, difficult situations will likely cause her severe emotional distress, which will be further exacerbated by her remnant hypochondria.

Designated Number: Female student No. 053

---

Designated Weapon: Box of Condoms

Conclusion: How unfortunate. This one is so anti-social she won't even need these. Too bad they didn't go to someone who could appreciate them. - Shamino Warhen

'The above biography is as written by Grim Wolf. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Grim Wolf

Kills: None

Killed By: Collar Detonation (caused by Gavin Hunter )

Collected Weapons: Box of Condoms (designated weapon)

Allies:

Enemies:

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

Other/Trivia

 * Karen Idel is the lightest student in V5, as well as the only one with an underweight BMI.
 * Karen Idel and Yasmin Carrol are the only two students in V5 with a two digit weight.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Karen, in chronological order.

Pre-Game:
 * Generals of Elysium

V5:
 * Target Acquired
 * Assumptions
 * Ultimately We Just Want to Be Happy
 * The two people in the distance were Paulo and Becca
 * Let the Idiot Sleep
 * Mischief Managed
 * Resisting Against Fate
 * The Only Winning Move

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Karen Idel. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''

To be absolutely blunt, I never cared much for Karen throughout her plot. It wasn't that she was a bad character, per se, but she did fade from my radar a lot just based on the fact that she was in a plotline with a few frontrunners that were vying for control and were vastly more in the spotlight than her. I often lost track of Karen up until one of the penultimate escape plot threads, where she definably took center stage. All that, however, was more than made up for by her death post - one of the most touching, emotionally charged death posts we've had at the 100 kid mark of V5, when I write this. For that alone, Karen deserves to be read - if only as a study in how to put the cap on a character arc. -- NotAFlyingToy

What I'm learning is that Grim is really good at giving me feels with the deaths he writes. -- Un-Persona